During building construction, studs must generally be located before portions of the wall can be affixed to the studs. Once a stud is located, a screw, nail or other fastener is inserted through the portion of wall, typically a piece of drywall, and into the stud. If a fastener misses the stud, the fastener often will puncture the wall and create a hole. Repair of these undesirable holes can significantly add to the time, cost, and materials required for the wall installation.
Various solutions in the prior art are known to reduce the likelihood of missing the stud when inserting a fastener. Previously, studs were located by tracing or mapping their location on to the drywall as the drywall was installed. For example, mapping typically involved marking the drywall along a horizontal axis at set distances, marking the drywall along a second horizontal line, and using a straight-edge to trace a vertical line that connects each pair of marks and thereby illustrate the location of each stud. While this solution helped to locate the studs, the tracing could often be very time-consuming and lack the accuracy required for proper drywall installation.
To eliminate the need for tracing, it is known to use handheld electronic stud locators. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,118 to Franklin, et al., discusses an electronic wall stud sensor that uses electronic sensing circuitry to accurately determine the location of the stud. One problem with this solution is that such handheld stud locators are typically separate devices from the tools, and thus generally involve additional steps. For example, the stud must first be located with the sensor, and then either the sensor must be put down or the stud is inserted with one hand. If the sensor must be put down before inserting the fastener, this will typically add to the time and cost of installation. If the fastener is instead inserted with one hand, this can increase the likelihood of improper insertion. Franklin and all other extrinsic materials discussed herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
To eliminate the requirement of having two separate devices, stud locators have been built-in to a variety of tools. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,228 to Philipp discusses a hammer having a stud sensing means located within the handle. While effective to locate a stud, the built-in sensor fails to allow for the sensor to be used with a plurality of tools. A further problem is that for users to benefit from the sensor, users must generally replace their existing tools with new tools having built-in stud locators. Replacing tools can be prohibitively expensive for many users, and also can require retailers to stock additional variations of each tool.
Another solution has been to provide a stud locator that can be permanently mounted to a tool. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,066,278 to Shotey discusses a power tool having a location sensor that permanently mounts to a tool for locating studs behind a wall. One problem with the Shotey solution is that the sensor typically is permanently affixed to the tool, and thus lacks the ability to be used on a plurality of tools and be removed from the tool when desired (e.g., leaving a work site).
Thus, there is still a need for a locator device that can releasably attach to a tool, while having the ability to be used with a variety of tools, and removed when desired.